(Chapter flow:)
ITS ORIGIN AND TOWN LIMITS
TOWN LIMITS
GROWTH, CHANGE OF NAME, ETC.
MERCANTILE ASPECT
MANUFACTURING
TRADES ETC.
SHIPPING INTERESTS
EASTERN SHORE STEAMBOAT CO.
SHIP BUILDING ETC.
HOTELS, LIVERY STABLES, ETC.
PHYSICIANS
LAWYERS
POST OFFICE
PRINTING OFFICES
SOCIAL ASPECT, ETC.
MORAL ASPECT
TEMPERANCE CAUSE
SCHOOLS
CHURCHES
Note: In duplicating this material for publishing on The Pocomoke Public Eye we have made minor adjustments to correct some of the spelling, punctuation, etc. We believe the errors were not in Rev. Murray's original writing but occurred in the process of formatting the material to a digital format for viewing online.
POST OFFICE.
The postoffice, in the early history of New Town,
was a very small affair, so small, indeed, that I have the
impression that there was no pay for transmission of the
mail from Snow Hill to New Town, as that was, then, the
mail route. I am indorsed in this declaration by the fact
that it was transmitted by individual citizens when they
would go to Snow Hill, on business, on public days.
As early as 1820. Michael Murray, my father, was post-
master for New Town. When other means of getting the
mail would fail, my father would send my two oldest
brothers, each one on horseback, to Snow Hill for the
mail. After these two brothers went to Baltimore to learn
a trade, this duty at times fell upon my two next older
brothers and myself. The mail was due at New Town
once a week, and sometimes it would lay in the office at
Snow Hill two weeks for the want of a carrier. In such
emergencies, my fathers would say to us: "Boys, you
must take the canoe," for then we had no horse, "and go-
to Snow Hill for the mail." At that period I do not
think I was more than eight years of age. We manned
the boat with two oars and a paddle; as I was the-
youngest, it fell to my lot to be steersman, as that was the
easiest part of the work. We would start on the first of
the flood tide. We were going on United States busi-
ness, and being little boys, of course we felt the importance
of our mission. When the boys would lean back with
their oars and make a long pull and a strong pull the
canoe, as a thing of life, would dart ahead and seemed to
say to me: "If you don't mind I will run from under
you." Thus we tugged and sweated until we reached
Snow Hill. We went up to the postoffice and got the
mail. If the ebb tide had made we started for home.
Sometimes we would be in the night getting home. At
such times I would get sleepy and would be afraid I
would fall overboard. Incidents like the following have
taken place when we have been delayed till the night
getting home. A storm cloud would arise, the thunder
and lightning would be terrific, the rain coming down
seemingly in torrents. We had no covering but the
cloud out of which the rain was descending. When we
would be getting down near the old ferry, now the bridge,
we would begin to halloo at the top of our voices, knowing
that our mother would be down at the back of the lot
looking up the river to see if we were coming. Sure
enough she would be the first one to meet us when we
reached the shore. The reader will learn that my father's
house stood on the same ground where William T. S.
Clarke's house now stands. There was no wharf then
between the lot and the river. There was nothing but
tuckahoes, mud and bramble.
When I think of the incident just described with many
others in which a mother's love has been shown, I am
constrained to exclaim: "Oh! the thoughts of a precious
loving mother: I once had such a mother, and the
remembrance of her is like sweet incense poured forth."
We arrived safely at home, ate our supper, went to bed
and slept soundly. The next morning the mail was
opened. The citizens would call for their mail matter.
Some of them had friends living in the far West, on the
frontiers of civilization, as far away as Ohio and ye Old
Kentucky. Oh! what a wonderful sight it was then, to a
little bey, to see a man who had come from that far-away
country. As I have already stated the New Town mail
was very small. There were but few newspapers in the
country and I have no knowledge what the postage was
on them. Letter postage was regulated by the distance a
letter had to go. For instance, the postage on a letter
from New Town to Baltimore was ten cents and from New
Town to New Orleans it was twenty-five cents. Anything
over half ounce was double postage then as it is now.
Forty years ago there was an express arrangement from
New Orleans to Baltimore in the form of a flying post;
that is to say, horses on the route would be bridled and
saddled already to start at the moment. For instance, the
starting point would be at New Orleans, the horse was
saddled and bridled and the rider in the saddle; at the
moment the signal to start was given, the rider would go
in riving speed to the next station of probably four miles
distance, at which another horse would be all ready, the
rider would dismount and mount again and thus pursue
the route to Baltimore. A letter by this route cost seventy-
five cents from New Orleans to New Town; if the letter
had money in it or over a half ounce the postage was one
dollar and fifty cents. How long this express route
existed I cannot say, probably not long. In 1827, Michael
Murray, my father, resigned the postmastership, having
held that position from my earliest recollection. At the
period referred to above, there was no mail pouch to put
the mail matter in; indeed, the mail would be so small that
it would be tied up with twine and taken in the hand, not
larger than any one of the neighborhood mails that go out
of Pocomoke City Postoffice at the present day.
The following is a list of names of postmasters of New
Town Postoffice from 1820 to 1882: Michael Murray,
Thos. Brittingham, John Burnett, Dr. James B. Horsey,
John S. Stevenson, Dr. Joseph L. Adreon, William J. S.
Clarke, William H. T. Clarvoe, C. C. Lloyd, James
Murray, Dr. John T. B. McMaster, William H. S. Merrill
and James H. Vincent, who is the present incumbent.
Thus the names of the postmasters of New Town Post-
office will be preserved from oblivion to those who do not
take the pains to search the official records for such
information.
I would here state that the postoffice went begging for
an appointee as late as 1861. This was the case when it
came into the writers hands at the above date. The mail,
in New Town, was semi-weekly and the postmaster
received about 80 dollars per year for his services. About
1863, the post office became a salaried one. The post-
master was required to keep a correct account of all
mail matter going- through the office during the last
quarter of the year and make a return of the same to the
postoffice department at Washington, and his salary was
based upon the per centage allowed him on all mail matter
going through the office that quarter, for two years to
come. Thus the salary was fixed every two years.
The postoffice in Pocomoke City, at the present day.
pays a salary of $700. It is one to be coveted and one
that will induce a political struggle to obtain. As late,
probably, as 1850, we had but one mail a week, now we
have three mails a day, and soon the fourth one will be
added. The rate of postage, then, was fixed according
to the distance a letter had to go. Then a letter from New
Town to New Orleans was twenty-five cents, now a letter
postage is three cents to any part of the United States.
CONTINUES NEXT SATURDAY HERE AT THE POCOMOKE PUBLIC EYE.
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